This couple restored an actual castle, and you can tour the results (PHOTOS)

Joseph and Catherine Cetrulo got a deal when they purchased their $4 million Morris Township home in 2014. They shaved $1.8 million off the asking price of a high-profile listing, and they've spent more than they saved to make a historic house their castle.

The original dungeon, with 10-foot vaulted ceilings reminiscent of medieval cathedrals, is now a tasting room near the temperature-controlled a wine cellar expanded to make room for Joseph Cetrulo's vast wine collection. The moat was transformed into a pool with a waterfall. It has bridge access and gas fireballs on either side for nighttime ambiance.

Of course, a house built with 66 rooms within its 32,000 square feet needs three kitchens (two of which are in former servants quarters converted to a pair of apartments). The Cetrulos are a couple for whom fine dining is a way of life, and so it's ideal that their main kitchen is a circular assembly of three rooms including a pantry, a refrigeration area and the cooking area with stainless steel counter tops, brass accents and Officine Gullo commercial-grade appliances from Italy. There are two ovens, two dishwashers and an 11-foot-long stove with a charcoal grill and 10 burners.

"The BTUs are as strong as a stove in one of my restaurants," said Joseph Cetrulo, who owns three waterfront restaurants: Stella Marina and Cubacan in Asbury Park, and Sirena in Long Branch. Over the years, the Cetrulo family name has been associated with some of the state's most celebrated restaurants, and now Joseph Cetrulo plans to open his home to his most discerning patrons.

"I want to start doing some events at the house," he said of the 100-year-old mansion known as Glynallyn Castle. A public viewing of the restoration will be offered 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 21 when the 12-bedroom house will be the cornerstone of the Great Swamp Watershed Association Home & Garden Tour.

Joseph Cetrulo worked from the original blueprints to restore the structure as closely as possible to its original design. The house was built between 1913 and 1917 by George M. Allen, who based its architecture Compton Wynyates, an early 16th century English manor. Allen, an amateur photographer who owned a publishing company, was able to secure 400-year-old beams and the heavy front door from Compton Wynyates to use on his own Tudor mansion on Canefield Road.

Cetrulo followed Allen's approach, using reclaimed materials in a careful restoration that has taken him almost as long as it took Allen to build Glynallyn. "When the house became the drafting company, they altered it to make it work for their purposes," Cetrulo said. "I had to restore the doorways and entrances to the way they were originally." No small task in a house with nearly 200 doors.

Suspecting that the original moat was still on the property, Cetrulo and his adult son dug behind the house until they found it. Every brick was carefully unearthed from the moat and used to replace damaged bricks in the house, and the moat became a swimming pool.

The house, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, has had periods of vacancy after having served as headquarters to a mapmaking company in the years after Grace Allen's 1951 death until 1982. Restoration efforts ended in foreclosure for one previous owner, but Cetrulo is on target to have the house and its more than 7 acres fully restored this summer.

"There's no way around doing this expensively," he said. "The house was built with reclaimed materials to look 500 years old. If I had to fix something that was wood, I had to go find reclaimed wood like they did. I had to buy everything specialty."

The Cetrulos purchased the three-story mansion in June 2014, and it took a year and a half to renovate the interior to move-in condition. Much of the expense in renovating a 100-year-old house is in restoring structural elements and updating its systems. In the case of Glynallyn, air conditioning needed to be installed and heating improved. Every bathroom (there are now 14) was gut renovated. The house has ornate plaster ceilings that needed restoration, the slate roof required flashing, and Cetrulo replaced two chimneys and all the roof drainage.

Overhead electrical wires were relocated underground, and Cetrulo selected yews, boxwoods, evergreens and other plants George and Grace Allen had used in the original landscape. Guided by black and white photos, including those from the 1917 wedding of the couple's daughter, Lorraine, Cetrulo envisioned modern-day brides and grooms. He paid attention to landscape areas that would create perfect photographic backdrops. He had an aged limestone fountain shipped from France, and he restored a flowing, trough-like waterway.

In an elegant manse with stained glass windows, carved woodwork, secret passages, numerous fireplaces, a two-story great room, and family room whose ornate plaster ceiling replicates one at Oxford University, it can be difficult to pick a favorite feature.

The home's master suite was originally a collection of three bedrooms for the Allens and their daughter. The Cetrulos share a renovated master bedroom and had two of the original bedrooms converted to his and hers walk-in closets, each with a separate bathroom and shower area. There was also room to create a spa bathing room. There alteration resulted in a 12-bedroom house, and each bedroom has a private bathroom.

The Great Swamp Watershed Association's Home & Garden Tour will represent the second time in recent years that Glynallyn opens to the general public. As the setting for the 2012 Mansions in May showhouse, it is said to have brought in 27,000 visitors, raising $1.3 mission for Morristown Medical Center. Tickets for the June 21 Great Swamp tour are $50 at greatswamp.org, or call (973) 538-3500. Admission is $60 on tour day and requires registration.

Cetrulo anticipates that the gardens, first level and basement of the house will be used for his events. Public areas are expected to include the foyer, great hall, dining room, bar, billiards room and dungeon.

"The wine tasting room is the dungeon," he said of what is likely the home's best conversation piece. "It can be used for anything you want. We don't torture people there."

What they renovated

100-year-old Glynallyn Castle

Who did the work?

Joseph Cetrulo acted as the general contractor and hired various trades as needed to work on the house.

How long it took

About three years, with work on the grounds expected to be completed this summer. Most of the work on the house was finished in 18 months.

How much it cost

"Millions," Joseph Cetrulo says.

Where they splurged

"The stove was splurging for sure," he said. The countertops are stainlesss steel, the brass edge on the island, two stainless steel sinks with brass edging from Florence Italy. Brass faucet.

How they saved

Joseph Cetrulo acted as general contractor. "That I saved a lot of money on."

What they'd have done differently

"In hindsight, there are always things you would tweak and know you could do better," he said. "Whenver you do a great project, it's enjoyable. The only bummer is when the contractors don't come through as they are supposed to."

What they like most

"That I was able to restore the house back to the way it was originally built," Cetrulo said. "I also built a beautiful wine cellar.